Dwarf Fortress

2006

The very first computer games were all
made using ASCII (American Standard
Code for Information Interchange).
Dwarf Fortress, a single-player fantasy
game released in 2006, forwent subsequent
developments in computer graphics
and is also entirely developed in ASCII.
Rather than relying on a naturalistic
three-dimensional interface, the game
generates its own complex world, which
the player can modify, out of classic
two-dimensional tiled building blocks
and text-based graphics. The goal is
to build a viable dwarf settlement in a
vast user-generated world of continents
and seas, shown here in a world
map from 2010. Every terrain has multiple
levels, on the surface and below it,
with more than 200 rocks
and minerals that players can mine and
make tools from. In order to succeed,
players must consider how a wide range
of factors, including natural resources
and weather conditions, influence their
dwarf colonies, must forge alliances with
competing civilizations, and must learn
to navigate an abstract world.